BEIJING, June 24 -- China's general public budget spending expanded 3.4 percent year on year to 10.8359 trillion yuan (about 1.52 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first five months of 2024, the Ministry of Finance said Monday.

Education, social security and employment took the lion's share of public budget spending, while sectors related to agriculture, forestry and water conservancy reported the fastest growth pace during the period.

Data from the ministry also shows that China's general public budget revenue decreased 2.8 percent year on year to 9.6912 trillion yuan in the first five months.

Further illustrating the revenue data, the ministry said that there could be a comparable increase of about 2 percent after deducting factors such as the introduction of tax relief measures for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the same period of last year, which increased the base rate and the carry-over of the tax reduction policies introduced in the middle of last year.

Tax revenue totaled 8.0462 trillion yuan during the January-May period, down 5.1 percent year on year, with a comparable increase of about 0.5 percent after deducting the impact of special factors, according to the ministry.